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European countries are urgently devising a Gaza programme to present to Donald Trump, working with Arab allies, as an alternative to his proposal to empty the Palestinians and take over to the US.
The US president's idea of sweeping out war-smashed Palestinian territory and turning it into a “Middle Eastern Riviera” is shocking and wary of Arab and European states.
However, the initiative also injected months of momentum in several months of debate about how to govern and secure Gaza after the 15-month war with Hamas ended.
French President Emmanuel Macron told the Financial Times that efforts to oppose Trump's plans can only be trusted if they provide something smarter.”
“This is what we need to move forward. There are some very reliable options,” he added.
European diplomats say foreign ministers of Germany, France, France, the UK and Italy will hold talks on the crisis at the Munich Security Council with Arab countries. The US will also be taking part, but it is not clear at a level where the focus is on how Arabs and Europeans can work together in a “better plan.”
“Palestinians and Arabs need to come up with a way to run Gaza rather than America, not Israel,” said a European official. “That's a gap that needs to be filled, and I think Europeans will work with Arabs in both funding and offering plans. That's what we're working on right now.”
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Egypt announced this week that it is working on plans to rebuild Gaza. Many of them have been reduced to wasteland due to the fires of Israeli strips since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack.
Cairo coordinates with other Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and Jordan. It hopes to prove to Trump that the strip can be rebuilt without ousting a population of 2.2 million from the enclave.
Trump urged Egypt and Jordan to accept the Palestinians of Gaza. They dislike being seen as conspiring to coerce Palestinians in forced displacement, fearing that it would threaten the stability of the region and their own safety.
Before the reconstruction begins, Arab countries and Palestinians need to agree to a plan for an administrative structure that ensures Hamas does not control the strip, Arab and European diplomats said.
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The ideas promoted by Egypt and other Arab countries consist of Palestinians who do not belong to any factions but are supported by Palestinian authority, the organisation that governs parts of the occupied West Bank. This includes the establishment of a governing committee.
Security components are still under discussion, but after existing police in Gaza, Pennsylvania, Hamas controlled it in 2007 after an internal battle with rival Fatah and potential reinforcements from the West Bank, stripped. It may include existing police that remained in the
The Fatah-controlled PA was able to invite local states to join security forces.
Arab officials said plans are expected to be presented at the Riyadh summit, scheduled later this month.
“The whole region has been mobilised after Trump said it, and now Europe is mobilising and trying to find a solution,” the official said. “There's even more urgent for everyone.”
The concept of regional forces deployed in Gaza was promoted by the Biden administration. However, it was not clear which states would be willing to send troops.
For example, Saudi Arabia would consider participating only after the establishment of the Palestinian state. At the very least, this requires the US and Israel to formally recognize states including Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the sovereign Palestinian government, Arab officials said.
There is also great skepticism about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government will embrace Gaza's Arab plan.
Netanyahu repeatedly refused to end the war forever, and eliminated concessions towards the establishment of a Palestinian or Palestinian state. He also argued that Israel would not allow Western-backed PAs to run Gaza.
The diplomat fears that Netanyahu and his far-right allies have been encouraged by Trump's declaration on Gaza. The US President has announced plans to take over the strip while hosting Netanyahu in the White House.
Arab diplomats say it's even more urgent, as they fear that the fragile hostage contract could be lifted.
An assessment conducted by the World Bank, the EU and the United Nations estimates that infrastructure damage is approximately $300 billion, resulting in $16 billion of destruction in the housing sector.
Additional reports by Parisian Leila Abudo and Ben Hall. Mapping Aditi Bhandari
